I have used "suspected=orpa" for one or two of these in Hampshire. By doing this you're not stating it's a right of way, but on the other hand you are adding additional information which means it's *more likely to be* a right of way than a random path through private land used as an informal shortcut - due to, as you say, the general "look" of it. Maybe "orpa" isn't the right term, maybe "suspected=public" or "suspected=row" or something. Nick
-----Graham Jones <grahamjones...@gmail.com> wrote: ----- To: cotswolds mapper <osmcotswo...@gmail.com> From: Graham Jones <grahamjones...@gmail.com> Date: 26/04/2012 06:13PM Cc: talk-gb@openstreetmap.org Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Permissive paths and "uncrecorded rights of way" Hi, If there is a path on the ground but nothing to say it is a public footpath etc, I just tag it as highway=path with no designation. Graham On 26 Apr 2012 16:29, "cotswolds mapper" <osmcotswo...@gmail.com> wrote: [New here (to OSM, not to mapping), so I'm not sure if I'm making this point in the right way or the right place. It's effectively a comment on the UK wiki changes, but I can't see how to reply to that thread.] It's been bothering me for a while that there is a gap in tagging guidelines relating to well-used (and possibly long-standing) paths that are not official rights of way. Certainly a newcomer reading the guidelines could get the impression that everything is one of RoW, permissive path or unknown, and I don't think that is true. Two examples from the area I'm working in (Cotswolds between Stroud/Cirencester/Birdlip). 1) There is a path through a wood I have been using on and off for nearly twenty years. It's clearly well used, mainly by dog walkers. There are no signs indicating the wood is private, and they are using it as of right. If someone tried to close it, I'm pretty sure it could be proved that a right of way exists. 2) In several villages (e.g. Eastcombe) I have found public 'ways' which are not official RoWs: On OS 1:25k maps (both historic and modern) they are shown as white roads. They feel like public rather than private land, with dry stone walls on both sides, and no stiles or gates or restrictions. 'Proper' rights of way branch off them. They are maintained at public expense (parish council workman cuts the grass twice a year, and sometimes there's a tarmac strip), and are well used (because the roads are narrow with no pavement). I would expect them to be ORPAs, but mostly they are not, and I have found too many for it to be an OS transcription error. In both cases, 'permissive' is completely inappropriate because people have used these ways as of right for many years, but they are not status unknown. More generally, I have read that there are thousands of miles of 'lost/unrecorded' RoW in... (England? UK? ... can't remember), and OSM mappers should be finding some of these. While all sorts of tags are possible for the experienced, the novice is likely to restrict themselves to wiki options. At the moment, the wiki reads to me as if 'permissive' is the fall through option once you have established that a way is not a RoW. IMO mappers should be discouraged from thinking like that and only record a way as 'permissive' if there is clear evidence that it is not used as of right. (And also be open to the idea that permissive signs may be wrong, but that's for another thread...) I think there then needs to be a tag (or two) for other ways that are not RoW, but not clearly permissive. For my first example, maybe 'traditional' or 'informal' would do. For my second example, which seems to me an obvious example of something falling through the crack between the council road's department and RoW department, I would be inclined to use 'de facto RoW', because it's hard to imagine anyone disputing the use, but there would need to be a high standard of evidence on the ground to use that term. Rob _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
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